nrr

At some airports they scribble on the bp with a regular pen. At others (where they are training the agents to read English), they underline, using a pen, almost every city, date, name, flt. no. they find on the bp. I've never yet had an agent put numbers or intelligible scribble--rarely do they use marking pens.
PS: I can scribble as well as the next person and if needed know where to purchase marking pens.

studentff

If I had to guess, I would say that on as few as 20% of my flight segments do I use a BP that has the TSA squiggles. Almost 50% of my flights are connections. And for those that aren't it is so common for me to go standby on another flight, change seats, get upgraded, or get rescheduled, that using the squiggle bp is rare. In addition, I frequently print multiple BPs from home (I tend to misplace small things) to use as spares, and I've been known to toss the squiggle BP after leaving the checkpoint and use a spare in a known place in my luggage rather than stuff the squiggle BP in my pocket, coat, or a book, and have trouble finding it later.

On mileage runs, I have routinely and repeatedly connected at small airports that technically have no connections or at least no connections on my airline/alliance, though not since about 2008. E.g., FAT, SBA, SNA, ORF, MSY. I have never been questioned about not having a squiggled BP.

InkUnderNails

Dean has been a pretty straight up guy, so I think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding. In the case of a SSSS that may show up on the boarding system computer, would it not be required that if there is no evidence of TSA screening, the OA may be required to call the TSA to clear the PAX?

the810

Last week, they marked empty spaces on my BP. Apparently they finally learned to read, now they have to learn how to find empty areas.

nrr

There have been reports (at least in the aa forum) where people have obtained ff numbers (as listed on bp) and used these (fraudulently) to access accounts. Destroying these (unused bp's) might be prudent.

InkUnderNails

Don't a lot of the airlines just throw these in the trash?

HSVTSO Dean

Yeah, at Huntsville, there are no lounges and there are no self-service kiosks at the gate area with which to get a new boarding pass. And, being Huntsville, it's not really a big airport for people to be traveling through on their way to somewhere else - everyone is either finishing their travel here, or originating their travel here.

The only time that's ever not the case is when someone sneezes too hard and makes ATL shut down, and we get four or five planes diverted here.

We do not, no. And -- no idea.

If there is one thing I've learned from reading this thread, however, it is that HSV seems has a security layer in place that, apparently, no other airport has. It certainly helps that TSA and the airlines at Huntsville aren't adversarial with each other; we, in fact, get along smashingly well. Maybe our respective managers might lock horns from time to time (if so, it's never in a place where I, a lowly peon TSO, would ever be allowed to see it), but those of us in uniforms - be it the royal blue of TSA or the navy blue of US Airways or the powder blue of United - get on great.

In other airports, where the TSA operation does not get along well with their airline associates, then I doubt this would be possible at all. Even if they did, the sheer volume of passengers would also make it prohibitive to try to do: Airports like EWR and LGA and LAX and ORD and ATL have more people in line at any one time than HSV gets through in an entire shift.

Unless the TSO(s) that respond to the gate remember the passenger trafficking through the checkpoint - which isn't too terribly hard to do; it's not like we have fifteen screening lanes running full-tilt all day or anything here. We have three, but typically only one is actually ever in operation.

At that point, the TSA personnel just affirm to the gate agent that they have undergone screening and we call it a day.

Lacking that, they're screened at the gate.

I would also point out that the situation itself is incredibly rare. Since TSA took over the responsibility of matching IDs to boarding passes back in 2008, we've only been called up to the gate... uh... well, suffice to say, I could count the number of times on one hand. It used to happen a lot more back when a company named Huntleigh did the boarding pass/ID checking.

RadioGirl

I suddenly have a theory that no one at TSA HQ (at least, no one who makes policy) has actually flown on a commercial flight since, uh, ... EVER.

In TSA-HQ fantasy land:

• Every passenger drives their own car to the airport (outbound and return flights!), or is taken to the airport by someone who will wait there until the flight has departed. After all, you can always take (randomly) prohibited items back to your car or give them to your friends.
• Every passenger has one - exactly one - boarding pass. There are no such things as "kiosks" or "lounges" where one can get additional copies of a boarding pass. Windows 7 has a feature that prevents printing two copies of a boarding pass. (Insert Mac, Linux, Unix jokes here.)
• Every passenger will fly in the class and seat that was assigned to them at the dawn of time. There are no "upgrades" or "seat changes" that those malcontents at FT argue about.
• Every journey consists of flying from one airport to another, then flying back to the original airport on some other day. These "connections" and "quick turns" are only a FT invention.

Seriously, if Dean's explanation is the real reason (and I'm sure that's what he's been told), it reveals a deep misunderstanding of actual air travel patterns.

BearX220

That's ridiculous as there are almost always airside kiosks where you can print off all the dupes you want. My teen son somehow lost his squiggled BP post-security at PHX last week. We found a kiosk in two minutes; no problem. We could have made 20 of them.

Recently had a TSO make a big ovoid smiley face on my BP -- and nothing else -- using purple Flair pen. Then, a couple of flights later, a guy ticked off every meaningful data point on the BP like he was auditing a 1040 form. Absurd.

studentff

Unfortunately I think you are correct. The example I would give is the original specs for "Secure Flight" would have required SSSSelectee SSSSecondary SSSScreening for any passenger who booked their flight at the last minute, was rerouted for irregular operations, etc. IIRC it required this for any changes inside of 36 hours from departure.

But in TSA-HQ fantasy land, Ma and Pa Kettle by their plane tickets for Disney World six months in advance, and business travel is never unpredictable or last-minute.

G_Wolf

HSVTSO Dean - I almost always appreciate your posts, and I think you're a valuable contributor to this forum. However, it seems to me that your description of the airport in Huntsville differs from how most other (larger) airports function, based on my experience and the experiences of others. The situation you describe in HSV regarding the squiggles on the BP's makes perfect sense to me, within the greater scheme of what the TSA does. However, I think you can agree that the reasoning you describe falls flat for most other airports, no?

Caradoc

You expected otherwise from the Theatre of Silly Absurdities?

Caradoc

Dollars to donuts there's no "plan," and that "thinking ahead" and "training" won't be involved in the process either.

bseller

In this age of iPhones, WHY, oh WHY are we even TALKING about BP squiggles?????

Dave

Often1

1. Accountability.
2. Just like many highly secure buildings which require the security guard(s) to physically handle the ID, it's a way of creating a situation where the checker is forced to verify the details which matter such as name, date and that you are actually at the right airport.